Enticement

L

Levusti

Guest
Original poster
The howl of the wind echoed around the suburban house as snow whipped and whirled around trees in a dance of mayhem. The house, about two stories tall with red bricks and a meticulously tended lawn, coordinated with the surrounding houses in the neighborhood. Though all the other houses on the street had lost power and their inhabitants fled to the hotels and hospital for warmth and electricity, this house held seemed to have a soft light shining from the living room--however, it wasn't by candlelight or fireplace, but rather an unearthly, lambent glow coming from a symbol written across the dark tiled floor.


A woman, neither young enough to be called a girl nor old enough to be called elderly, flitted across the room impatiently with chalk in hand. She observed the seal she had drawn on the floor. It was about 3 meters wide and yet each dot, line, circle and cross were placed so precisely in this large circle. "I need you, demon, so come to me quick," she hummed while she stroke two final marks at the edge of the circle.


She was a practitioner of folk magic, and an invocation such as this was far beyond her scope of power--yet she dared to continue. After picking up an open book and a hand mirror lying on a coffee table pushed to the side, the woman strode to the middle of the sigil. With the mirror raised high in one hand and the book cradled in the other, the witch began to chant as the blustering wind ouside hushed her voice in its roar.


"Thus, I begin: as entitled by high witches, Madeleine the Forlorn Witch, I profess! Ye, the seventy and first Spirit sealed by the King Solomon, hear my call! I request your Knowledge and Wisdom, I give ye secret Counsel, and upon this Earth I allow ye Residence! Give Name to the Man with Many Countenances. Arise, Great Duke of Hell! Your name is Dantalion!" As she exclaimed the name of the demon, the chalk glyph underneath her seemed to yawn and jet black smoke flooded out. Shrouding the room in darkness, the smoke seemed to hang still in midair before swirling together in a human-like shape. The smoke slowly began to meld and solidify into a skin which was as gray as ashes.


The naked hairless body faced away from the witch as it lay on the floor a few feet in front and a brown, leather bound book lay open within one hand. An audible gasp of air was heard, followed by the hiss of words, "I am Dantalion. Hast thou called, Forlorn Witch?" The demon lay there seemingly lifeless--though the subtle rises of his chest told otherwise. His body, though inhumanly pale, resembled perhaps a young man. He had broad shoulders that sloped easily to a narrow waist and long limbs with sinewy muscles. With much strain, the man pushed himself onto his hands and knees and filled his lungs with as much air as he could. "Have you need of my powers or the legion of spirits under my dominion?" he whispered as he turned an ear towards Madeleine.


In curiosity, the woman squatted lower to take a better look at his face when suddenly, the demon evaporated into smoke. Madeleine stumbled backwards and shrieked when the man materialized silently behind her. A good head taller than her, he bent down to mutter into her ear. "I am not a spirit that demands allegiance. However, you must promise me this, witch. I take not thy soul but I would enchant thee once--lest I depart."


A smooth chuckle left his lips and Madeleine nodded nervously. "By name as the Forlorn Witch, I assent."


"Aha, I see," he smiled. As Madeleine turned around to look at Dantalion's face, but he'd vanished again and reappeared to her right, "I do attend thee, witch. Tell me now thy desires."


She clutched the book within her hands tighter before she spoke, "The Lesser Key of Solomon. In the Ars Goetia, you were the 71st Demon sealed away. You can show me people and change the thoughts within their mind, correct?"


Silently, Dantalion walked behind her and approached her left. Madeleine looked at the demon but she yelped in surprise when a mirror image of her stared her back in the eyes. "Indeed, I can," he replied with a voice the same as her own. "Why do you ask? Have thee a person you'd like to see? To change what they know?"


Biting her lip, she looked into his eyes with resolve, "I do. Her name is Alicia Hess. She has stolen away the man Fate had given to me for love." Dantalion drifted around the room soundlessly. When Dantalion brushed her shoulder with his hand, she looked away and Dantalion appeared in front of her with the body and the face of Alicia Hess, a beautiful girl with red hair and blue eyes. "Y--you know her face. I want her to love no man anymore. Can you grant me this?"


The demon giggled a girly laugh and nodded his head slowly. "Are thou sure, child? Quite a simple task, that. I can make her desire anyone." Madeleine inclined her head in reply. "Very well. I'll grant thee this." He summoned a cloud of smoke which swirled in spherical shape the size of volleyball and snapped his fingers, banishing the smoke as quickly as it came. "It is done. She loves thy man no longer."


Madeleine smiled, tears welling in her eyes in joy. "The other witches told me I couldn't do it, but I could! I had the power to summon you after all, and you made my wishes come true! Thank you!"


"Thank me not. Now I must bewitch thee," Dantalion hummed. The girl looked hesitant but she swallowed down some fright that seemed to rise out of her throat and stepped forward. "Thou must keep promise. Fear not, I'll not take from thee the breath of life or the limbs from thy body. But I'll do thee likewise as was done to Alicia Hess." Exhaling smoke onto the girl's face, Dantalion muttered mysterious words. Madeleine dropped onto the floor unconscious and Dantalion bent down, still wearing Alicia's body, and kissed her on the lips. "You shall love Alicia Hess forever, though she will never love you." Groaning and laughing all at the same time, the demon transmuted his body into the figure of a tall man, chocolate brown hair and eyes the colors of emeralds and began to exit the house. "You should have listened to your sister witches, girl. Summoning me is a simple task--controlling me is not. Ahaha, all this done in the name of love? Love is such a strange thing."
 
Soft dark red hair fell in front of his eyes as Rain bolted through the downpour.The storm had surprisingly blown in from the west and began dumping centimeters upon inches of rain on the large city. His class had run late and to top it off Rain's bike had gotten a flat, no doubt the small black pocket knife he'd found next to the slashed tire was more then slightly to blame. The young man had shoved the knife into his pocket, of course after folding it up so it wouldn't hurt him.

He was grumbling under his breath as his already-soggy tennis shoes splashed through deep muddy puddles along the side of the street. The sidewalk was in disrepair at some portions of the street so he'd taken to just walking along the side of the road. His pants were already ruined already along with the shoes but considering the amount of water that was already absorbed into his sweatshirt and pants he needed to get home faster or a cold would definitely become a problem.

Glancing around as he came to a skidding halt sending a spray of dirty water up against the gate of the weird house's yard. It was called 'the weird house' by his few friends at college. Rain was just starting his first semester and had graduated a year early from highschool, he'd had to get a job right after graduation and needed to wait several years before actually starting his college courses. Of course making friends were few and far between at the moment especially with his slightly girly name and his odd colored hair. Most people just figured he dyed it but that wasn't true. The guy was actually naturally born with the dark red coloration. Many thought he was possessed when he proved he hadn't dyed it but when someone tried to actually do an excersism on him he stopped arguing that it was his real hair and just decided to agree that it was just dyed.

Blinking up at the large overgrown yard Rain narrowed his eyes trying to judge just how far the garden went. He'd gone around the other side a few times and it took about ten extra minutes just to circle the amount of land the home had but if he cut through the garden...
Of course the whispers at his new school said that the place was haunted but that made no sense. They all said witches lived there who liked to mess around with the dark arts, summoning demons and what not to do their bidding.
"Tch, like that's even possible."
Running a soaked sleeve across his face moved the guy's wet hair out of his eyes for a moment as they skimmed the darkened greenery. It was a risk and he could get in deep trouble for trespassing but he needed to get home fast to keep from getting really sick and his little brother needed him to cook dinner too...

Well, guess that was that. With a grunt of effort he hefted his wet backpack up onto his shoulders, the large amount of books inside nearly forcing him to fall over backwards into the slightly flooded street. Catching his balance Rain ran up onto the sidewalk and towards the gate, ducking inside since he was easily able to squeeze through one of the broken rungs. Dodging along the overgrown underbrush he looked around but the dark storm clouded his vision too much to make anything important out. Well, one thing he was at least glad for was that if there were any guard dogs they probably wouldn't be able to hear him through the downpour.

The young man's footsteps were quick but unsure as he stumbled through the large landscape. It was obvious that it was once taken well care of but it had been let go recently and things had overgrown excessively causing Rain to trip and tumble a few times as he worked his way through. After several minutes he finally came out into an open area but froze as his light blue eyes rose to look up the path towards the house. He was only a few yards from the dilapidated front porch and through the thick walls of water coming down it was hard to see but did someone...just...come out of the house?!?

Squinting the young man noticed that indeed, someone was starting down the stairs.
Shit!
Turning on his heals he started to run back towards the way he came but came to a skidding halt when he noticed he had no damned clue which direction he'd come. Yes he'd stumbled out from the left but looking back it didn't look passable to return...
Turning once again his eyes sought out the other, wandering if he was still intent on coming outside in such weather.
Rain hoped he might get lucky and he wouldn't be spotted in the dense rain if he didn't move if the man didn't want to actually come into the storm...